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July 26, 2016

Police and rescue workers stand at the scene after two assailants had taken five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du -Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016. Two attackers killed a priest with a blade and seriously wounded anot

The Islamic State group said Tuesday that two assailants who stormed a church in France and killed an elderly priest were its "soldiers," according to an IS-linked news agency report.

The claim just came hours after the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

The two assailants stormed the church during morning mass, taking five people inside hostage and slitting the throat of its priest, who was in his 80s.

The attackers were killed by police after they emerged from the church.

This is a French Interior spokesman, who says an investigation is being conducted.

He says: "The Paris prosecutor has given the investigation to an anti-terrorist unit of the judicial police, and the director-general of interior security."

Meanwhile, President Francois Hollande vowed Tuesday to wage war against the Islamic State "by every means" within the law after two men were linked to the jihadist group.

Japan is in a state of shock over Tuesday's knifing attack in which at least 19 disabled people were murdered and 25 others wounded.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. He described the attack as very tragic and shocking. He is praying for peace for the departed souls and extended condolences to the victims’ families.

The suspect is identified as a 26-year old former employee of the facility for the disabled, who allegedly murdered the people as they slept.

He turned himself in at a police station, carrying bloodied knives and admitting to officers that he did it. He has a history of mental illness and had been hospitalized early this year after delivering a letter to parliament, in which he threatened to kill hundreds of the disabled.